Try “intuitive Running” so You Can Do the Exercises Without Thinking About It.
Sometimes I wish I was around in the early days of jogging, when I could put on an earthy tracksuit and just put one foot in front of the other until you felt like you’re done. Running in 2020 is the world of Strava and Garmin, apps and statistics. Even the most gentle and beginner-friendly way to learn to run is strictly measured: so many seconds of walking, so many seconds of running, changing with each workout until you finish running a certain distance of five kilometers.
That is unnecessary. You could always run as fast, slow or as far as you wanted. Your speed doesn’t really matter unless you have a timing goal for the race, and even so, most of your workout should just include the time you are comfortable with. (Most of us are probably running too fast anyway because we are worried about our pace. Better to slow down .)
I’ve run a few races, but now I run mostly for general health benefits and because, hey, why not. I am not worried about numbers in any application; most of the time I don’t track a damn thing. So I got a sense of déjà vu when I saw physiologist Georgie Thomas give this slacker an understandable name: intuitive running .
This is an anti-hack: it makes your life better by removing rules that you thought were helping. Just get out and move your body on foot, without worrying about how fast or slow, or what your numbers are, or what you are doing “right.”
While I think it is helpful to learn how to maintain a constant (slow) pace, you will learn this skill over time . Learning how to relax enough to enjoy running also takes practice. Running can be difficult at first, but you still deserve the experience (and perhaps joy) of it.
So do as Thomas says. If running makes you feel like you are dying, start running and then just stop when it gets too much. Walk until you feel like you want to run again. Run until you feel the urge to walk.
Over time, perhaps you will learn how to smoothly combine these two aspects. Or maybe you find that you enjoy living your life in extremes, moving as fast and as slow as possible in turns, and that’s all you need. Give it a try – leave your Fitbit at home, use your phone to listen to music (if you ever need to use one at all) – and see if the road or trail is more enjoyable with nothing to do and nothing to measure.